yes, but the E-300 has a quiet small optical viewfinder image and the housing finder shrinks it even more I guess. Don't know if Olympus has enlarged the E-330 finder. Nothing wrong here. But I would have preferred Olympus improving their optical housing finder. I mean, Olympus has "some" experience in optics, they should be able to do it In addition LCD preview - that would be great.

Julian

Hi Julian,

I am sure I will aggravate the C & N faithful by saying this but the diffrence in the viewfinders is minimal. I have owned Canon and Nikon 35 mm cameras in quality housings like the Nik 8008 and Canon AE and can not see a diffrence from the E-300. I also own a like new Canon 10D with 50 mmm F1.4, 28-135 F 3.5-5.6 IS USM and EF 17-40 F4 L (all like new in the box for sale at tropicalone@bellsouth.net) and can't see much of a diffrence other than it is harder to see into the corners of the 10D due the the diffrence in3:2 over 4:3.

I have also used housings with the Subal/Sealux grand view and Seacam 45 & 90 viewfinders. These are great improvements over most housing finders, however the grand view cost more than my housing and the Seacam cost more than the E-300 and housing. This is I am sure money well spent, but not for a sub $600.00 camera body. I might also add that my Nikonos RS has a viewfinder better than any of these, so I am quite spoilled.

As you say Olympus is a superb lens maker, that is what drew me to the E-system to begin with. They indeed need to address the issue of enlargement of the viewfinder system for the small format chip, but I think this is a back burner issue compaired to others they have.

I am sure that we all have issues with each of our camera systems and when Olympus makes the E-1 replacement with a 10+ MP senser I may be willing to spend the money for the "grand view" and will expect a better viewfinder. Until then I have taken over 20,000 images above water with the E-1 without having to clean the sensor once.

Seems like with the largest R & D budget of all the camera manufactures Canon (and/or Nikon) should have had an answer for dust by now, an issue of minimal diffrence as well.

Regarding the bulkhead connector for the Olympus PT-E01/E02 housingit can be found at Mike-dive.de

I am sure that we all have issues with each of our camera systems and when Olympus makes the E-1 replacement with a 10+ MP senser I may be willing to spend the money for the "grand view" and will expect a better viewfinder. Until then I have taken over 20,000 images above water with the E-1 without having to clean the sensor once.

Phil Rudin

Be careful what you wish for.

The current 7.5 Mpixel offering only goes up to ISO 400 native. The boost to 1600 is just exposure compensation in software. Decreasing pixel size will reduce the signal-to-noise. The 4/3 sensor is about 60% the size of the 1.5x cropped sensor and 30% that of a full frame. It's harder to squeeze in as many pixels.

My point is that dust is an issue for all digital SLR cameras and one that Olympus was able to address having designed an entirely new camera system. I didn't say that everyone elses sensors have dust all over them, only that Olympus has delt with some of the issues of digital photography that others have not.

Regarding the Olympus chip size, I am well aware of (and was prior to buyng the E-1 and E-300) the size diffrence between 35 mm, 1.7, 1.6, 1.5, 1.3 and so on. once again each has its up sides and down sides. I am also aware that larger sensors most offen preform better at higher ISO than smaller sensors. I am also sure that if I were needing a camera that had to have clean files at 1600 I would have looked elsewhere. I'm not sure why what I wish for should concern you but thanks for your imput.

I did not want to chat about comparing camera brands in general, sensor cleaning methods, different aspect ratios ... . You say the difference "is" small. Well, by numbers it is not small. But more important is if it makes a difference when shooting. To me (I don’t even wear glasses), it makes a big difference and it is clearly noticeable.
(I still have my first SLR, Olympus OM-2, a light and small camera. ~ 20 years later, Olympus sells cameras with a much smaller viewfinder …)

I just wanted to second James comment that digicam users sometimes believe underwater shooting is difficult without LCD finder. But as soon there is a decent optical viewfinder, there is nothing to worry about IMO. I am sure, Olympus could improve the housing finder quiet easily.

I would guess the diver interested in buying this new Olympus is really not going to be be worried about the averagely small viewfinder. The major attraction would be the LCD - and using that instead of the viewfinder.

I have now done a couple of dives with a D70 and a couple with a D50 in Sea&Sea housings and although the viewfinders are not as bad as I first thought, picture composition still seems less natural and less comfortable to me than compared to the compact digitals that I've been using. These small viewfinders just feel like a sort of picture targeting hole.

It is nice to read some support for the Oly E system and espeially this new model. Perhaps it is a good thing that we all do not land up using the same equipment! It's a little dissapointing to hear about the dome port appearing in the photos from the 7mm end of the 7-14 zoom from Phil. I wonder if the 8mm fisheye will be even worse in this respect?

Hi Trever, it is the dome shade that created the problem not the port itself. The shade is removeable and I intend to shave off the offending corners of the shade when I have the 8 mm lens for testing. Like the first generation macro gear this housing seems to be a work in progress and I hope to see many of these issues addressed by the time the PT-E02 housing arrives.

The dome is an Athena OPD-170 (optical coating inside and out) on a mount for the Olympus housing and works quite well with the 7 to 14 zoom and extension tube. Waiting for the release of the 8 mm fisheye this month to round out my lens choices.The dome shade was designed for the OPD-170 dome and 35 mm lenses up to 14 mm in the 3:2 format. In 4:3 the image is slightly taller on the short side which was not taken into consideration before the domes were shipped. As a result all four corners of the dome shade can be seen in the image at 7 mm and about 5 cn will need to be shaved off.

Do you know if it's possible to buy these things directly from Athena? I assume from your post that I can't just specify that I want an Athena OPD-170, I need to specify the Olympus version.

The Olympus dome, PPO-E04, is very expensive.

BTW

Panasonic and Olympus are cooperating on future 4/3 cameras. Leica and Panasonic have had a cooperation building digital cameras for a long time. Now I've learned that Leica will introduce 4/3 lenses at PMA to go with the Panasonic camera(s).

I'm wondering exactly what settings they provide, and if they provide any settings that aren't already available. On my Oly 5060, I know there is a setting to change the auto-focus when the camera is in a housing, but what else do the new scene modes do?

Apete,
I obtained my PPO-E04 dome from Reef Photo & Video a Wetpixel site sponsor and found the price quite competitive with other manufactures high quality glass dome ports. I had e-mailed Athena many months prior to the release of this dome in the U.S. and they would not confirm or deny making the glass for Olympus. The dome does not apear on their webpage and it does not appear it can be ordered direct.
Regarding Panasonic, it appears they will introduce an entry level DSLR at PMA with the 4/3 chip and lens mount. Leica is also rumored to announce a line of 4/3 lenses during the same time period. Would love to see some wide primes. All good news for the 4/3 system enthusiast.

Mboni,

The E-300 and E-330 (coming soon) both have the U/W scene modes but I have never used them. Most of the time I have the camera in manual and at times use A-priority. More important is that a gear can be placed on the selected lens and the camera can be placed in AF-M allowing you to go from AF to manual by depressing the shutter half way or to switch from AF to M by rotation of the command dial one click.

It may also be useful to note that UK-Germany has already announced an intent to add an E-330 housing to the their Olympus line which now has the E-300 housing and E-1 housing on the way. UK also announced at "Boot", a joint project with Helge Suess, an avid Olympus E-1 user and contributor to this fourm to present a new 45 degree swivel viewfinder. The Belgium manufacturer Hugyfot has also announced a stylish new housing for the Olympus E-500 which allowes for TTL via the built-in popup strobe. All of these new releases can be viewed in detail, including several photos of Helge"s new viewfinder on the "Digideep.com" home page. Helge says the viewfinder may allow for adaptation to several diffrent housing brands and allow a lower cost option.

Digideep concludes that "this year owners of Olympus cameras on all levels will be warmly welcomed by the underwater imaging industry".

"To live the liquid life is to experience the rehabilitation of our bodies and minds as they evolve in the underwater world by not using any form of mechanical breathing apparatus - this is the essence, the purity of purpose of freediving." - Aharon Solomons

I think not Cliff. If you look at the rear of the E-300 and E-330 ( dpreview.com has some large photos) for which the PT-E02 is being made you will see diffrences in the placement of the function buttons and the need for more space for the larger LCD.

"To live the liquid life is to experience the rehabilitation of our bodies and minds as they evolve in the underwater world by not using any form of mechanical breathing apparatus - this is the essence, the purity of purpose of freediving." - Aharon Solomons

A few technical notes on finder size:
The total amount of light passing through the optical system of the finder depends on the size of the sensor = size of the mirror = size of the focusing screen. Altering the size from a 1:1 ratio will increase or decrease the brightness of the finder. A relatively larger finder is darker, a relatively smaller one is brighter. This limits the virtual size of the finder.

Viewed at a virtual distance of about 2m (which is relaxing for the eye) at a viewing angle of about 45° the virtual size of the finder has to be different to schieve equal brightness for 35mm SLR, APS or FT.

The maximum aperture of the lenses limits the brightness anyway so especially for a camera that is targetting the use of slow lenses should have a bright finder in the beginning.

The E-330 targets users migrating from P&S to DSLR. IT also targets those who like the idea of a tilted display (rather than using an optical angle finder). When zooming in you may be able to judge focus onthe display (losing the view on the whole picture).

I'm not sure if the concept is mature yet and I for myself prefer an optical finder. It will have to proof its practical usefullness.

UK-GERMANY has already measured the camera and will provide a housing as soon as the camera is shipped. It will be distributed by a Swiss based webshop under their label. The housing will allow the display to be tilted to 30° (and therefore has to sacrifice the optical finder). To me this would be a good cause against buying it unless the display isn't sufficcient under all circumstances. I will get a housing for a test as soon as it is available as a prototype. I'm pretty sure that the camera is targetting a user group that won't buy an optical finder that is as expensive as the housing itself. For those users, the tilted display is the best compromize availble for reasonable money.

It is clear that the Oly PT-E02 housing is going to have an optical finder which will allow use of the OVF as the main finder and the use of the LCD display when needed. Are you saying that the UK housing for the E-330 will have no OVF or just won't be sold with an oversized optical viewfinder like the one you have in development with UK?

Also I see that UK has new housings for cameras like the D200 and 5D but that you are still waiting for your E-1 housing. What seems to be the holdup and how much longer will it take?

The problem with the E-330 housing is that you can't access the OVF when the display is tilted at 30°. I'm not sure if there will be an OVF at all. Not even the standard one. You wouldn't get close enough with your regulator banging against the display window :-(
That's the trade-off for the tilting.

The angle finder is available as a prototype. We're optimizing the design for mass production.

The E-1 housing has been delayed because the guy doing the atual milling had serious troubles. His company had to fight globalization issues that made extra work impossible. I have the first two housings made on a private basis so I can afford the prototyping. UK-GERMANY will do the final assembly and they haven't got a chance to do it yet. That's why there are so many new UK-GERMANY housings but none for the E-1 yet. The problems are now mostly over so milling continues. I'm expecting the raw housing within the next few weeks.

I'm wondering exactly what settings they provide, and if they provide any settings that aren't already available. On my Oly 5060, I know there is a setting to change the auto-focus when the camera is in a housing, but what else do the new scene modes do?

If they are anything like the scene modes on my wife's little stylus (which has pretty much all the same scene modes), UW macro puts the lens in macro mode and zoomed, strobe on. UW wide is lens wide, strobe off. There may also be a color shift or white balance shift to punch up reds, but I haven't done enough testing to figure that out.

I'd skip it and shoot manual, even manual/raw, particularly if you have an external strobe.

But I have to say, with the little toy styluses which don't have manual modes, those scene modes are great. "P" does a lousy job of, say, an evening portrait with a sunset background, but if you go to the sunset mode, or the candlight portrait mode, or the night portrait mode, Wow, it's really nice, well exposed sunset with a bit of fill flash. Great in a camera without Manual mode, in a newbie's hands, and probably costs Oly nothing to add to a camera like the 330, even though it's much less necessary.